Hello Folks!

Turkey day is fast approaching!  With this in mind I wanted to do an article challenging myself to come up with some new cocktails that take the flavors and spirit of the Thanksgiving holiday and translate them to drink form.  With such a wide array of flavors, I had to really consider what signified the holiday most for me. I hope you enjoy what I came up with!

Cranberry Fizz: One of the biggest arguments surrounding Thanksgiving is whether to serve canned or fresh cranberries with the meal. I say to heck with that, lets take that wonderful cranberry tartness and break it down to a light and fizzy cocktail that is great for starting off your Turkey Day!

Prep Time: 2 Minutes
Yields: 2 Drinks

Ingredients:

3 ounces of vodka (2 shots)
1 ounce of fresh lime juice
1 tsp of granulated sugar
4 ice cubes
6 fresh raspberries
6 fresh cranberries
sparkling white wine

Directions:

Grab your cocktail shaker and start by adding in the sugar, the lime juice, the fresh cranberries, and the vodka.  Then take your handy muddler and crush all these elements together. You will want to make sure that your cranberries are good and pulverized so that as much of the juice is released from the berries as possible. Add your ice cubes and shake vigorously for a few moments. Then grab two champagne flutes and strain half the contents of your mixture into each glass. Fill up the rest of your flutes with the sparkling wine and drop in the fresh raspberries for a sweet garnish. This simple drink is easy to make, with a beautiful sparkling balance of sweet and sour. A great way to cool down while your slaving over that holiday stove.

Cilantro/Mint Mojito: I love a good old-fashioned mojito! It’s such a light and summery drink. But one of it’s greatest qualities, is that it is incredibly adaptable and with that in mind I thought what better way to incorporate another fantastic element of Thanksgiving – the spices – into an easy to make and tasty drink. With the cilantro and mint combo, you get the sweetness of the mint mixed with the earthiness and autumn-like tastes we attribute with Thanksgiving from the cilantro.

Prep Time: 2 Minutes
Yields: 1 Drink

Ingredients:

5 fresh mint leaves
8 fresh cilantro sprigs
1 lime, cut into quarters
2 tbsp of granulated sugar
2 ounces of white rum (1 ½ Shots)
4 ice cubes
club soda

Directions:

Grab your cocktail shaker again and start by dropping in the mint leaves and a lime wedge into it.  Use your muddler to crush these two elements together. Then add your sugar, five cilantro sprigs, and two more lime wedges into the shaker and continue to muddle until all the elements have been sufficiently broken down. At this point you will be getting that earthy sweet balanced smell I was talking about above. Then you want to add your ice and your rum.  Stir the mixture vigorously until the sugar has dissolved. Then grab a glass filled with ice and strain the contents into it. Top off the glass with a little club soda and give it a quick stir. Add your remaining cilantro sprigs to the top of the glass as a garnish and you’re ready to go!

Mulled Wine: So for those of you in other parts of the country, you know the areas where Thanksgiving is recognized as a winteresque holiday, this next drink will warm you up after your wonderful food comas kick in and the sun has set in the west.

Prep Time: 3 Minutes
Cooking Time: 25 Minutes
Yields: 4 Servings

Ingredients:

1 bottle of red wine (Cabernet and Zinfandel work best)
1 orange
¼ cup of Rye Whiskey
1/3 cup of honey
4 cinnamon sticks
2 tsp of dried all spice
¼ cup of granulated sugar

Directions:

First you want to grab a medium sized pot – big enough to hold the liquid from an entire bottle of wine and a little extra.  Then you want zest your orange.  Keep the zest you will use it later.  Then quarter your orange.  Pour the entire contents of your wine bottle into your pot. Squeeze your orange quarters over the pot containing your wine, releasing the juice into the mixture, then drop in the squeezed rinds. Next add your rye whiskey, sugar, and honey, cinnamon sticks, and all spice. Turn your burner to low/medium heat. You want to let this mixture simmer for 25 minutes, stir occasionally and prevent it from boiling, by keeping the heat low. As you stir add in little bits of your orange zest to add a little extra flavor.  After 25 minutes, ladle the contents of your pot into a few coffee mugs and serve to your guests. This sweet and savory concoction will warm them up and perhaps even have them looking for pajamas, so you may not want to give this to the people you don’t want staying at your place after the meal is done!

Whatever your drink of choice, please drink responsibly, and have a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday!

Good Spirits Folks!

*If you have a holiday taste or ingredient you want me to try next month, let me know! I always love a challenge!

**Special thanks to reader Kristina Ten for challenging me with creating a cilantro concoction this month! I hope this works, otherwise I will try again!

Now officially, Turkey is the main event at Thanksgiving, but everybody knows that stuffing is the true breakout star (followed closely by gravy). For our final week of Thanksgiving match-ups, we’re testing a new stuffing recipe against the rosemary, cornbread and chicken sausage stuffing we’ve made the last several years.

Jennie and I are pretty fond of our cornbread stuffing, so it was a challenge to concoct a recipe that sounded promising. This Martha Stewart recipe inspired us to experiment with pear, fennel and pork sausage, but we also wanted a trace of something unusual. So, we cooked the pears with cinnamon and a touch of curry, and added cranberries for good measure. Of course, we also made this one with cornbread so it could be gluten-free for our guests!

Unsurprisingly, this was as delicious as we hoped. The cinnamon pears, fennel, and cranberries paired nicely with the savory sausage and sage. Not to mention, the texture was perfect. Everything came together as a cohesive dish without turning to mush. We did find ourselves missing the stronger flavor of the chicken sausage that we’ve gotten used to, and we won’t deny that curry is not for everyone! Still, this recipe is a solid contender for our stuffing dish this year!

Find the full recipe here, and let us know what you think! Should we make the switch or stick to the same cornbread stuffing we’ve known and loved for the last three years?

It still makes me so happy when I realize that there are healthy and delicious alternatives to foods I love and grew up with. Thanksgiving is around the corner, and I’ve been thinking about childhood foods I enjoy. I’ve also been wondering, How much can I stick to paleo during the holidays? What about my old favorite foods like mashed potatoes? I did some investigating, and I’ve come up with a creamy paleo-friendly mashed potato substitute that I’m crazy about: parsnip mash.

I used this carrot and parsnip puree recipe from nomnompaleo.com for inspiration.

Ingredients:

4 parsnips, peeled and chopped
3-4 stalks of green onions, chopped
¾ onion, chopped
½ cup chicken stock
½ cup water
½ can full fat coconut milk
Walnut oil (or another paleo-friendly oil)
s/p

Directions:

1. Coat a large pan or wok with walnut oil.
2. Add the veggies and sauté them briefly.
3. Add the broth and water. Bring the liquid to a boil.
4. Simmer the ingredients for 25-30 minutes.
5. The veggies will soften. Add the mixture to a blender.
6. Add coconut milk as needed to help blend the mixture. I pureed in two batches in a regular blender, and I added about ¼ can of coconut milk for each batch.

I cannot wait to make this for Thanksgiving and enjoy it alongside some turkey, cranberries, and other treats!

As you know, Corelyn and I get up early every Thanksgiving morning, shove a turkey cavity full of aromatics, and stick in in the oven. Then, we have several hours until the troops arrive that we use to do a crossword, watch the parade, and eat breakfast. Our go-to breakfast for Thanksgiving has always been the PW Prune Cake, which is sweet, savory, and perfect.

The great thing about the cake is that it is even better on day two (or three) and since we always make it in advance, it’s guaranteed to be the perfect cake to tide us over until dinner on Thanksgiving afternoon. And it goes amazingly with a big cup (or three) of coffee.

The problem is, you say the words “prune” and you get looks immediately, not to mention cake for breakfast is a little, shall we say, non-traditional. Plus, what it has in flavor, it lacks in protein and we definitely want to make sure we’re not hungry by mid-day. And we always seem to have leftover prune cake because there are too many baked goods that are more Thanksgiving-style.

As you may have seen Tuesday, we’ve concocted some savory breakfast muffins that just might be our new go-to for Thanksgiving morning…they have sausage, and cheese, and broccoli, and they transport and reheat easily.

So, what do you think we should do? Should we stick with prune cake, and enjoy having a sweet breakfast one day of the year, or should we make the savory breakfast muffins that add a little more balance to our day? Tell us what you’d do!

As you may know, on Thanksgiving morning Corelyn and I tend to get up around 6 to get to wherever we’re going for Thanksgiving, pack up the car to the brim of veggies and turkey and pans and pots and tools, and arrive by 7 to remeasure the oven, get the turkey ready, and stick it in the oven in time for it to be done by dinner.

Then, we have several hours of break, where we can’t go back to bed (as we are at someone else’s house) and besides, the parade is on! There is menu planning to discuss! Tables to prep! Something, always, to chop!

In order to prep ourselves for a full day of cooking away from home, we usually serve up something that we’ve made in advance – and that something is usually Prune Cake. We made it during the Pioneer Women Challenge of 2010, and honestly I think we just made it because we needed to make the prune cake. But it stuck, and we’ve made it several years running as a quick and easy (and delicious!) breakfast before the massive Thanksgiving Meal.

This is all to say: maybe four years later, we need a different approach to breakfast – one with a more savory (read: balanced) approach. Enter these savory breakfast muffins.

These muffins were a spin off of the Gluten Free Savory Muffins that Mel and I made earlier this year – only these are not gluten free, and we switched up the contents with breakfast sausage, broccoli, and cheddar cheese.

The full recipe is here, but suffice to say, these were a winner – they were easy to put together, easy to eat, easy to reheat…and they have a veggie! What’s not to love?

What do you guys eat for breakfast on Thanksgiving? Do you think we should stick with our prune cake, or maybe try this option?